Below is the speech that Mr.Roy Marlin gave during the press briefing of September 28th’s meeting for the DP.
Extend congratulations to the people of Aruba and the AVP party for their election victory on Friday last. I also want to extend my congratulations to the MEP party which obtained 8 seats and Democracia Real which obtained one seat.
Aruba is coping with certain problems such as the recent closing of the oil refinery and I hope and pray that the incoming government can resolve this very important matter for Aruba and its people.
The constitutional meetings that will be taken place this coming Wednesday in Curacao I wish the SXM delegation much success. We remain concerned about statements made on SXM position in this matter and that SXM does not end up with a different constitutional status than Curacao because of weakness being displayed while looking for alternatives to resolve the myth coming from the second chamber members that SXM is not ready.
The DP believes that in these discussions that are taking place the idea should still be championed on eliminating the parliament of the NA as of the date that the constitutional change process is agreed upon and that legislation should be enacted before the elections of January 2010 by both the Central Government and the Kingdom Government to make this a reality.
More and more we see delays from the Central Government in transferring task to the Island and every time you have political consultations the goal posts get moved farther back because of agreed upon dates for transfer of task not being reached. Fact is not reaching these goals is not at all the fault of SXM but a lack of willingness by the Central government to move things forward.
To illustrate on some dates made with the Central Government, the political consultation meeting of November 2008 whereby agreements were made to transfer task to the Islands. This agreement made should have seen transfer of task in 2 phases, per July, 1 2009 and December 31, 2009. Those dates were subsequently moved to October 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009.
Today is September 28, 2009 and we have not seen any serious preparations of the transfer of task on the horizon which will take place to meet the December 31, deadline much less the October 1, deadline which is just 3 days away.
Now we hear Minister Duncan stating he will handle the Ordinance on transfer of task before January 2010. Another delay tactic?
What should now happen is SXM to yet sit around the table this coming Wednesday and sign yet another agreement to transfer task per e.g. November 1, 2009.
It goes to show that the Central Government which is supported by the National Alliance for the past 4 years, was and is not serious about dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles. Not one step in trying to move the process forward has been realized by the NA supported Central Government to the benefit of SXM.
The Finance Minister now decides how good the cooperation is so she takes the Commissioner of Finance along on a trip to the Netherlands to meet with the state secretary of Finance. It was because when I had the responsibility she could not have twisted me around her fingers.
Minister Roland Duncan and the National Alliance after almost 4 years have absolutely nothing to show on how they helped move this process forward.
All achievements to date have been done under a DP administrating the local government and getting the constitutional train moving. The things which were done on a local level are part of the political agreements made with the Dutch Government which were accomplished because here locally the DP believes in the process, and we showed that we lived up to all our political agreements made locally. Still they want to claim SXM is not ready. The Kingdom Government and those working behind the scenes to obstruct SXM attaining country status should be asking if the Central Government is ready. If the NA is ready to move this process forward?
Issues championed and achieved by the DP such as making sure that SXM had a healthy start position which resulted in the Social Economic Initiative for which we now see NA members of the Executive Council grandstanding in the newspapers, issues such as the institutional Strenghtening program for the improvement of our tax department and building of human resources in preparation for our country status, issues such as the corporate governance codes, dividend policy, corporate governance council, the timely submittal of a balanced budget for the year 2009, multi annual budget 2010 to 2012, agreements based on the temporary measure on financial supervision are all agreements made by Sint Maarten with our Kingdom partners which under a DP led administration have been fully complied with. SXM has complied with these agreements because we believe the Democratic Party believes that if we make agreements we should live up to these agreements. Unfortunately this philosophy only rest with the DP and not with the NA. If the NA were committed to this cause as much as we the DP are committed, in 4 years of a Central government supported by the NA the Central Government should have done much more on the transfer of task from the Central government to the island.
No one ever ask the leader of the NA what has his party done in 4 years supporting a Central Government for SXM. This question should be asked every time the NA leader holds a press conference to announce and report items of no substance. What have you done for SXM in 4 years supporting the Central government, or better yet what have you done in 4 years as a senator for SXM?
With the change of government here locally we also see the danger of the constitutional process being delayed even more because of the lack of commitment from the NA/Heyliger Executive Council to comply with some of the agreements already made, agreements such as the timely preparation of the budget 2010, compliance with submitting annual accounts, even the compliance with the agreements on corporate governance. One example is it has been a couple of months now since the final documentation on corporate governance was approved by the Island Council. Because of the NA government not being serious about having its act together again the DP was criticized for walking out of the meeting and not supporting their charade when handling the changes of the articles of incorporation of Telem and I believe the Kadaster. Sometime in May of 2009 the new regulations on corporate governance were passed by the Island Council.
We were then awaiting response which should have showed that SXM and the Dutch agreed to the rules on corporate governance. In any event what should now happen is the appointment of members to the council for corporate governance. What is the Executive Council waiting on to make this appointment of the members. The DP believes that there is no seriousness in wanting to appoint these persons as this is not in the interest of the NA/Heyliger EXCO to do so at this point and time. If the NA leader want to talk about seriousness then ask him why isn’t the council for corporate governance not appointed as yet.
Was it all a charade when you took government and stated that good corporate governance will have high priority for you. Or have the priorities changed now that you are in government.
No we must first make changes to supervisory boards of government owned companies, first appoint interim Managing Directors at Telem and then we will appoint the council for corporate governance. We must first make changes to boards of the airport and other companies and then appoint the council.
The DP believes that the council for corporate governance should be appointed in order to do exactly what it was established to do, advice the EXCO on matters such as Telem.
Getting back to the constitutional train, Minister Duncan with the change of the guard indicated that the constitutional train will be moving much faster now that the NA entered the local government arena. We saw several agreements made in June of this year with the Central Government and one with the Dutch Government were a pledge was made that the Dutch Government will support SXM in helping us to build up those vital departments to become a country. The details of these agreements the how, when and financing have not been made available as yet. I hope that on Wednesday after the political consultation we don’t hear that the train is moving without getting the full details of the several train stations and times we will have to stop at these stations before becoming a country. I hope that on Wednesday our train, SXM train will be moving with the same speed, the same direction and the same pace as that of Curacao and that no side agreements will be made different for SXM than SXM becoming a full fledged country , no if’s and but’s about it.